Education Key to Solving Rural Problems

8/14/2019 Education Key to Solving Rural Problems

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RURAL PROBLEM IN INDIA

INTRODUCTION

About 75% of the Indian population lives in rural areas and about 80% of this

population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Agriculture accounts for

about 37% of the national income. The development of the rural areas and of

agriculture and its allied activities thus becomes vital for the rapid development ofthe economy as a whole.In this regard, India has succeeded in developing one of the

largest rural banking systems in the world. Various regulatory measures have been

taken enabling the banking system to play an important role in the economic

development of the rural areas. The two most prominent measures are rural

commercial bank branch expansion, thus moving from class banking to mass banking

and secondly, priority sector lending and the formulation of specific development

programmes and action plans to facilitate credit flow to the rural sectors. Despite

these measures, as per the Debt and Investment Survey, Govt. of India (1992) about

36% of the rural households are found to be outside the fold of institutional credit.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

Even though India occupies the first or second position in the world in several crops

in terms of area and production, it's rank in terms of productivity per hectare in the

world is 52 for rice, 38 for wheat and much low in several other crops. The

productivity of some crops is not only low but also remained stagnant over the years.

The yield gap needs to be bridged through an integrated package of technology and

agricultural policies to reap the untapped production potential, particularly, in rain-

fed and other low productivity areas.

CAUSES FOR BACKWARDNESS IN VILLAGES

1. Zamindari System, the legacy of the British Rule

India was under British rule for 200 years. British policies were aimed in revenue

collection and not rural development. They introduced the zamindari system. The

zamindars were deemed the owners of all land and they collected as much revenue

as they could from the peasants. The system left the peasants very poor and the

zamindars did very little to improve the conditions of the villages. After the country

attained independence this system was abolished, but the conditions of the peasants

is yet to transform completely.

2. The Bonded Labour System

It is equivalent to near slavery. Bonded labour is an indebted agricultural worker, who

had borrowed from the money lender at usurious rate of interest and had to work in

his farm for low wages. The system was used to permanently enslave the worker, as

the worker was only able to repay a part of interest and the loan with compounded

residual interest went on swelling. The agricultural labour can free himself eventually

only by giving his son in bondage as a substitute. Under the 20-point economic


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programme, the Government India under Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi abolished

bonded labour system and brought legislation to this effect in 1975. Despite the

legislation the system is known to persist here and there in select areas.

3. Other contributory reasons are the total lack of agricultural development under

foreign rule, poor communication, roads and other infrastructure development in

villages, lack of education and health facilities, and the destruction of the thriving

Indian cottage industries on account of competition from the cheap machine madegoods imported under British rule

PROGRESS MADE AFTER THE COUNTRY ATTAINED INDEPENDENCE

1. After Independence the Country adopted planned development. The very first five

year plan laid stress on agricultural development. It took a number of measures to

bring more land under irrigation. Major irrigation Dams like Bakra Nangal, Hirakud,

Nagarjunasagar, Tungabhadra were constructed which generated power for

industrialisation of the country and water for irrigation. A number canals were build

to distribute stored water over an extensive area. The Indian farmer, as a result, is

now not exclusive depending on the monsoon.

2. Intensive cultivation of land is made possible through farm mechanisation. Tractors

are being produced in the country and these are available to the farmers

everywhere. Farmers are also using threshing machines, deep boring and irrigation

pumps. They get supplies of high yielding improved seeds, fertilisers and other

inputs. To enable them to purchase such inputs the rural credit system has been

invigorated with Cooperatives, Regional Rural Banks, and Rural Branches of

Commercial Banks. The recent boon to the poor Indian peasant is the micro finance

system and Self Help Groups that have rendered financial support within the easy

reach of all.

3. Land Reform legislation introduced in the country after independence include the

abolition of the zamindari system, the abolition of bonded labour system, land ceiling

legislation etc.. Legislation was also introduced to relieve rural indebtedness and the

money lender could no longer legally collect more than reasonable interest.

Untouchability was abolished and special legislation for the upliftment of scheduled

cases and scheduled tribes were enacted.

4. Community Development Programmes, Integrated Rural Development Programme,

bringing local self-government to the roots of the village through introduction ofpanchayat raj system ushered a new era of rural development. Development of

public health care system, schemes undertaken for promoting literacy and adult

education in the country, programmes for development of rural industries are other

development programmes that have received the thrust of the Government's

development approach.

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES


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Agriculture, with its large dependent population has to thrive and flourish, in order to

secure rural prosperity. To ensure orderly and vigorous growth of agriculture policy

and structural issues need to be addressed quickly. Some of the important issues that

need to be addressed are -

1. Improving profitability of agriculture, through yield improvements, diversification

and reform of agricultural marketing.

2. Strengthening backward linkages and expanding irrigation coverage.

3. Providing forward linkages especially for post harvest management, processing,

transport, storage and market infrastructure.

4. Securing a stable long term policy on agricultural commodities trade, including the

role of private sector.

5. Encouraging emergence of a market mechanism for agricultural commodities such

as a commodities exchange.

6. Streamlining the cooperative credit structure for facilitating hassle free flow ofcredit.

7. Implementing watershed development projects in the rain-fed and dry-land areas.

Rural banking faces twin challenges

Banking in rural India is faced with the twin challenges of regulation and distribution.

Regulation with respect to banking has been designed for delivery in urban India and

distribution required more manpower to be deployed in rural areas. Initiatives like

cheque transaction where the electronic image and not the actual cheque is sent

have in mind the urban customer, he said. "About 500-600 million people in Indiastill do not have bank accounts. For the rural segment, one needs to design no-frills

products and deliver hard core value".The other handicap was that while Rs 1-crore

business in microfinance required 30 people in terms of manpower, the same volume

of business in other portfolios required only one person. Also, contract farming and

supply chain integration has not gone the way they should have. Power,

telecommunications, banking and transportation had reduced the urban-rural divide,

he said. Besides traditional banking services, people in the rural and semi-urban

areas are expressing interest in liability and investment products. He said, "Rural

India is fast transforming a nation of savers into a nation of investors".

CONCLUSION

No doubt, villages are in a state of neglect and under-development, with

impoverished people, as result of past legacies and defects in our planning process

and investment pattern. But the potential in rural India is immense. What if every

village in the country is provided with basic amenities, like drinking water, electricity,

health care, educational transport, communication and other facilities, with only a

smaller population of the village engaged in agriculture and the remaining in other


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gainful occupations? When this happens India will turn into mighty country. The

purchasing power of the rural population throwing enormous demand for goods and

services will boost the national economy tremendously. The day will see the reverse

migration of people from the urban slums back to the villages. Rural Development is

the subject to come to the forefront after the economic reforms and rural banking will

serve the backbone of this development.

EDUCATIO N KEY TO SOLVING RURAL PROBLEMS

The gap between rural and urban education in China is widening, and "vigorous

measures" must be taken to improve rural education standards, a Chinesegovernment document says.

China's State Council issued the full text of its decision to strengthen rural education

Saturday, which explicitly defines rural education as the focus of national education

policy.

"Rural education serves as the foundation, the driving force and an important factor

that influences the overall building of a well-off society in an all-round way," says the

official paper, published after the closing of a national conference on rural education

convened by the State Council, which ended Friday. Well-developed rural education

will help modernize China's agriculture through raising the expertise of China's 800million farmers, helping redundant rural laborers become valuable human resources

for China's industrialization and urbanization. It calls for fulfilling the "two basic

targets" of universal nine-year compulsory education and eradication of illiteracy

among young and middle-aged people in the less developed western regions in five

years. The decision directs the state to divert central funding to rural education. New

poverty relief funds from the central and regional governments will be used to

support educational causes in poor rural areas.

It also calls for promoting adult education among farmers to improve efficiency of

agriculture and farmers' incomes. More than 100 million farmers will receiveeducation in practical technique each year and more than 20 million farmers will

receive orientation courses to prepare them for urban life and non-agricultural

business. The central and regional governments share responsibilities for meeting

basic requirements of compulsory education in rural areas. Overall, county-level

governments bear the main duties for the administration of compulsory education.

County governments are expected to raise their capabilities to meet expenses for

compulsory education through increased central funding. New educational

allocations will mainly go to the rural areas.


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The paper says a mechanism will be established to ensure that children of poor rural

families can go to school. By 2007, children of poor families will all have access to

free text books, subsidies for lodging expenses and be exempt from miscellaneous

expenses.

The document calls for public donations to education and says the donations will be

fully tax deductible.

It also calls for improving the proficiency of rural school teachers and better

educational facilities through building a lifelong educational system for teachers and

implementing a distance education project in rural primary and high schools.

The decision has set a target of equipping all rural primary high schools with

computer classrooms and all rural primary schools with satellite educational program

receiving facilities and educational CDs and players in five years. The People's Daily,

China's leading newspaper, hailed the decision as a major move to improve rural

education in its editorial to be published Sunday.

It says this is the first time the State Council has ever held a meeting to speciallydiscuss ways to improve rural education since the People's Republic of China was

founded in 1949.

Education Key to Solving Rural Problems

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